Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY) has invested $448 million for a minority stake in Chinese search engine Sogou, the latest example of how China’s largest Internet companies are spending big to expand their arsenal of products.

　　The deal brings to an end months of talks between Sohu.com Inc. (SOHU) and potential suitors for its Sogou search unit.

　　Tencent’s investment, which gives it a 36.5% stake in Sogou, is designed in part to keep rivals like Baidu Inc. (BIDU) and Qihoo 360 Technology Co. (QIHU) from getting their hands on China’s third-largest search engine by traffic, according to research firm CNZZ.

　　China’s largest Internet companies arescrambling to acquire or invest in companies that can give them a competitive edge in attracting China’s growing number of smartphone users. Battle lines are being drawn among China’s three largest Internet companies--Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. This latest move firmly aligns Sohu with Tencent.

　　Baidu in July agreed to spend $1.9 billion to acquire 91 Wireless Websoft Ltd., which operates one of China’s largest mobile-app stores. Alibaba this year paid more than $800 million for investments in online mapping company AutoNavi Holdings Ltd. and Sina Corp.’s (SINA) Weibo microblog business. Tencent has been less active than its rivals but said in August it was spending about $200 million to market its mobile-messaging application WeChat outside China.

　　Sohu, together with its affiliates, remains the controlling shareholder of Sogou, which will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of Sohu, according to a statement from the two companies.

　　For Tencent, the investment helps the company gain an edge in search. For years, Tencent, which had a market cap of $100.95 billion at close of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Monday, has operated its Soso search unit without gaining much traction among Chinese Internet users. Tencent’s Soso will merge with Sogou as part of the deal, according to the statement.

　　Sogou is a popular search engine among China’s higher-end users. Last year, the company integrated its Chinese Pinyin input directly into a search bar, drawing many users who used its Chinese character-writing software but not its search engine.

　　Charles Zhang, Sohu’s chairman and chief executive, will remain chairman of Sogou. Martin Lau, president of Tencent and Mark Ren, Tencent’s chief operating officer, have joined Sogou’s board. Wang Xiaochuan will continue to lead Sogou as a director and chief executive.

　　【新闻快讯】传了四个多月的搜狗出售的消息终于尘埃落定，其最终花落互联网巨头腾讯。昨天，搜狐与腾讯共同宣布达成战略合作，腾讯向搜狗注资4.48亿美元，成为搜狗第二大股东。腾讯还将旗下的腾讯搜搜业务和其他相关资产并入搜狗，交易完成后腾讯获得搜狗36.5%的股份。

　　很多人在电脑或手机上使用搜狗拼音输入法，凭借这款产品打开了市场的搜狗，目前在搜索市场份额是8.8%左右，位列百度和奇虎360之后。搜索业务并不是搜狐公司的核心业务，搜狐公司CEO张朝阳意图将其分拆，或者卖掉或者引入其他战略资本让搜狗独自发展。

　　此次合作，意味着360掌控搜狗对抗百度的算盘失策，百度则长舒一口气。但巨头腾讯的加入，将使目前搜索引擎市场的格局产生很大的变数。

　　昨天下午，试图收购搜狗但却失败的奇虎360公司总裁周鸿祎表态称：“恭喜张朝阳及搜狗，这个价格还是不错的，也希望老张借此机会，让搜狐公司发展得更好。”





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